>A book that begs for flashlight reading

by Roger Sutton
Mar 30, 2010 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>Serendipitous with my enjoyment of M. T. Anderson's refereeing of Charles and Emma v. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, I had the best time last week reading the equally Darwinian-themed The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1912. Somehow I had always missed this novel (and its subsequent movie spinoffs), but my ten-year-old self would have loved it. You can tell how much fun Conan Doyle had  playing with Darwin's theories; the book busily throws poisonous snakes, ape-people, Indians, and dinosaurs at the bombastic Professor Challenger and his crew, who dip into a dizzy smorgasbord of scientific thought to account for what they are seeing. Cheerfully racist and violent, though, so I can't imagine the book regaining a foothold today.
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Roger Sutton

>It would have been great when I was re-reading Journey to the Center of the Earth for the hundredth time.

Posted : Apr 01, 2010 04:12

Anonymous

>Hi Roger,

My ten-year-old self DID love this book -- and even my 46-year-old self when I reread it again recently. So glad to hear you mention an old favorite, no matter how 'cheerfully racist and violent.' (!) Loved all of the movies, too.

Posted : Mar 31, 2010 11:52

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